Graphics cards have for the past ten years been pushing the extremes of computing technology, and Consumer Guide offers this purchase guide to walk you through the graphics card basics and suggest some options for users of every level.

Serious gamers know that a cutting-edge graphics card can really beef up your performance and sharpen your games' visual experience. However, graphics cards are becoming more and more mainstream, especially with the introduction of Microsoft's new Vista operating system.

ATI Radeon X1950 Pro

Many new PCs ship with integrated graphics -- essentially a pared-down graphics card -- built into the motherboard. This is fine for tasks like web browsing and word processing, but even if you are just a light gamer, you can greatly benefit from a dedicated graphics card. If you're considering the upgrade to Vista, your non-game computing will also profit from a graphics boost.

A dedicated graphics card fits into a slot on your motherboard. Older systems use an AGP slot, and newer ones usually sport a faster PCI-express slot. Make sure that any graphics card you're considering will fit your system. Check your users manual. It should be noted that while some systems have neither an AGP nor a PCI-express slot, graphics cards are also available in a basic PCI configuration that will fit almost any system, so shop around.

One of the simplest ways to eyeball graphics performance is to look at how much video memory the card has. This memory provides a space to offload video data that your system would normally have to process, so the more space there is, the better. Basic cards start out with 64MB or 128MB, and high-end cards boast 512MB or more. Additionally, the faster this memory, the speedier the video can be processed. For gaming, you should look for DDR2 or faster video memory.

The core power of a graphics card -- often called the GPU or graphics processing unit -- is measured in MHz just like a CPU. The "core clock speed" is another useful measure for comparing the benefits of one card over another.

With today's modern graphics requirements, you should also consider whether a potential card can handle DirectX 10 (DX10), Microsoft's set of video tools for processing 3-D graphics. Enough changes were made from DX9 to DX10 that a new graphics card is necessary to run them. While Vista offers both versions of DirectX, if you are a hard-core gamer, you'll want the best card possible. That means shelling out the extra money for a DX10 card.

There are a lot of graphics card manufacturers out there, but the lion's share utilize core technology from two companies: ATI and NVIDIA. Many folks argue the benefits of one company over another, but the fact is, a fast card of either flavor will noticeably boost your graphics performance, so it all comes down to personal preference. ATI and NVIDIA have DX10 graphics cards on the market. Both companies also plan to release budget DX10 cards in the near future, putting DX10 video features in the hands of the masses in the coming year.

High-end: PNY GeForce 8800 GTX

Hard-core gamers often opt for the best card that money can buy, and that's currently a graphics card from NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 family such as the 8800 GTX. This PCI-express card has a suggested retail price of $550 and features 768MB of GDDR3 memory, twin GPU cores operating at 575MHz each and full DX10 support.

Mainstream: ATI Radeon X1950 Pro

A more modestly priced but still high-performance option is ATI's Radeon X1950 Pro. This PCI-express card has a suggested retail price of $250 and features a speedy 575MHz core clock speed and 256MB of GDDR3 video memory. While it only offers support for DX9, you can pair two of these cards together in a compatible motherboard for greatly enhanced performance, although this obviously doubles the cost.

Budget: PNY Verto GeForce 6200 AGP and FX 5200 PCI

If you're just looking to upgrade your PC's integrated graphics for some light gaming, and you want to keep costs low, there are many options out there. PNY has a broad range of NVIDIA graphics cards for any interface. The Verto GeForce 6200 AGP features 256MB of DDR video memory and a 350MHz core clock speed, while the Verto GeForce FX 5200 fits older PCI slots and offers a 250MHz core with the same amount of memory. Both cards sell for less than $80.

Whether you want to ride the cutting edge and prepare for the upcoming DirectX 10 games or are simply looking to step up from your integrated graphics, there's a graphics card out there that will fit your system and budget.